Athlete Bios
Cross-Country
Petra Majdic
Slovenian cross-country skier is favoured to win gold at 2010 Games
Last Updated: Saturday, January 16, 2010 | 6:08 PM ET
New York Times for CBC Sports
Petra Majdic of Slovenia, right, won nine World Cup races in the 2008-09 season. (AFP/Getty Images)Petra Majdic is a cross-country skier from Slovenia who will be favoured to win the gold medal in the sprint in Vancouver Olympics after finishing eighth at the 2002 Salt Lake Games and sixth at the 2006 Turin Games.
The event at the 2010 Olympics will adhere to the classical style, which plays to Majdic's strength. She is not as efficient in the skater-style freestyle form that some competitors, including her top American rival, Kikkan Randall, prefer.
In 2008-09, Majdic was magical; she won nine World Cup races, giving her 15 career victories, all but two of which are in the sprint. For all her success, she experienced disappointment in the season's biggest competition, finishing 13th in the sprint at the world championships in Liberec, Czech Republic, in January 2009.
Majdic, who was born Dec. 22, 1979, is the first Slovenian cross-country skier to win a World Cup medal, the first to win a World Cup race and the first to make the podium at a world championships. She figures to face a stiff challenge in Vancouver from Poland's Justyna Kowalcyk, who beat her in one of the first World Cup races of the 2009-10 season.
